Is it obligatory to attribute divinity to what is pre-eternal? How can a weak being not be a deity?

1. If matter is pre-eternal, how is it obligatory to attribute the same states of the attributes peculiar to Allah?

2. How can Allah not be weak? How can a weak being not be a deity?

3. How true is the view of Parmenides that change is impossible?

Dear Brother / Sister,

1) The pre-eternal being is either one or infinite. There cannot be anything in the middle because when you attribute pre-eternity to some beings other than Allah, it will be necessary to attribute pre-eternity to billions of atoms, molecules, cells and elements; all of them have the same characteristic. All of them are mindless, unconscious, lifeless, blind, deaf and weak. No atom has a superior aspect to other atoms – in terms of the ability to create. Either all of them are pre-eternal or none of them is pre-eternal. It has been proved scientifically that matter is not pre-eternal and that it was created afterwards.   

The being that is pre-eternal is the creator, educator and manager of all other beings. That is, He is their Lord. The Lord is the deity, the only being that is worth worshipping.

Since there are beings and since it was proved scientifically that they were created afterwards and that some of them are even visible, there is definitely a creator that created those beings. Common sense considers it necessary. This chain of logic necessitates the existence, pre-eternity, deity/divinity of Allah obligatory. (If you really want to comprehend this issue, please read the Risale-i Nur Collection or its relevant parts; then, your mind, heart, soul and feelings will be satisfied like us inshallah.) 

2) Allah created the whole universe in unity, makes all beings help one another, connects everything with everything, makes billions of living beings breathe at the same time, gives them oxygen, keeps the whole universe active, makes mindless bees in different regions produce honey and silkworms produce silk at the same time links all living beings to the oxygen tube in the atmosphere, etc.… It means Allah's power is infinite. It is a mental contradiction that an infinite power be weak.

Nevertheless, a pre-eternal power has no rival that will interfere Him. Weakness is the opposite of infinite power. It is not possible for day and night to exist at the same time, for something to be both white and black; similarly, it is impossible for a power to be both pre-eternal and weak at the same time.

What is weak cannot be a deity because what is meant by being a deity is to be the being to whom the whole universe submits.

It is necessary to have created the whole universe in order to be the true deity of it because to be the deity of the universe means to gain the glorification, love and respect of the whole universe expressed with the tongue of the mouth and disposition. It is unthinkable for a being who does not create and does not do the beings favors to gain their love, respect and worship. Man is a servant/slave of good deeds. There is nothing more absurd than a weak being who cannot do any good deeds to claim to be a deity.

The first condition of being a true deity is to create the universe out nothing, to establish a certain system after creating it, to make it function with wisdom, to ensure its maintenance, and to be able to fulfill the specific needs of everything. Those who are weak cannot do these things and hence they cannot be deities. (It will be useful to refer to the Risale-i Nur for detailed information.)

3) Although Parmenides is regarded as one of the natural philosophers, he was one of the first philosophers of the tradition of rationalism in Ancient Greek philosophy. He is estimated to have lived between 600 B.C. and 500 B.C. He is thought to have played a role not only as a thinker but also as a legislator and statesman. According to Parmenides, nothing changes in the universe. Reality, that is, being, is One in the absolute sense; it is everlasting and permanent; it was not created and it cannot be eliminated. It is pre-eternal and post-eternal; there is no movement and change in it

In our opinion, this thought is no more than an ordinary guess, like the similar thoughts of many ancient Greek philosophers. As Imam Rabbani states, philosophers who were not enlightened by the light of revelation could not get rid of foolishness because human mind is limited even if one is a philosopher. Trying to use limited intellect in an unlimited field is a sign of stupidity. Therefore, the words of philosophers are full of contradictions. Many of them spent their lives refuting one another. 

We will cut it short and quote from the greatest scholar of the last century Badiuzzaman Said Nursi, who said, 

“For through the strength of the All-Wise Qur’an, I challenge all Europe including your irreligious people. Through the lights of belief I have published I have razed the sturdy bastions they call the physical sciences and nature. I have cast down lower than animals their greatest irreligious philosophers.” (Mektubat, p. 72)

His following statements are very profound and true and can eliminate the questions in the minds of those who try to read them sincerely:  

“The Third Question: The former enemy and now rightly-guided friend then asked: Philosophers, who have made many advances these days claim: nothing is created out of nothing, and nothing is annihilated and goes to nothing; there is only composition and decomposition, and this makes the factory of the universe run.'"

"The Answer: Since the most advanced philosophers who did not consider beings in the light of the Qur’an saw that the formation and existence of beings by means of nature and causes was so difficult as to be impossible – in the manner proved above, they diverged into two groups:"

"One group became Sophists; abdicating reason, which is exclusive to human beings, and falling lower than mindless beasts, they found it easier to deny the universe’s existence and even their own existences, than to follow the way of misguidance, which claims that causes and nature have the power to create. They therefore denied both themselves and the universe and descended into absolute ignorance."

"The second group saw that in misguidance, according to which causes and nature are creator, the creation of a fly or a seed, even, entails innumerable difficulties and requires a power unacceptable to reason. They were therefore compelled to deny the act of creation and to say: ‘Nothing can exist out of nothing.’ Seeing total annihilation also to be impossible, they declared: ‘What exists cannot go to nothing.’ They fancied an imaginary situation in which combining and decomposition, gathering together and dispersion, occur through the motion of particles and the winds of chance. Now, see! Those who consider themselves to be the most intelligent are the most profoundly ignorant and stupid. Understand just how ludicrous, debased, and ignorant misguidance makes man, and take a lesson."

"Indeed, a Pre-Eternal Power created the heavens and the earth in six days, every year creates four hundred thousand species simultaneously on the face of the earth, and in six weeks every spring constructs a living world more full of art and wisdom than the world itself. Thus, it is more foolish and ignorant than the Sophists, the first group above, to deny the act of creation and deem it unlikely that, like a chemical that when applied shows up invisible writing, Pre-Eternal Power should give external existence to beings, which, though externally non-existent, exist as knowledge, and whose plans and measures are determined in the realm of a Pre-Eternal Knowledge. Those unfortunates are absolutely impotent and have nothing at their disposal apart from the faculty of will. Although they are inflated like Pharaohs, they can neither annihilate anything nor create anything from nothing, even a minute particle. And so, although nothing comes into existence out of nothing at the hand of causes and nature on which they rely, out of their stupidity they say: ‘Nothing comes from non-being, and nothing goes to non-being.’ And they even extend this absurd and erroneous principle to the Absolutely All-Powerful One.” (Asa-yı Musa, p. 175-176)

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